Where Was Resident Alien Filmed? Every Major Location, Explained

For a show about outer space, SyFy’s “Resident Alien” sure grounds itself with some beautiful scenery. The sci-fi comedic drama stars “Firefly” alum Alan Tudyk as Harry, an alien that crash-landed on earth with a mission to kill its people. Instead, Harry became a medical examiner, became besties (and maybe then some) with local human Asta (Sara Tomko), and faced off against some freaky, powerful aliens called the Greys.

All of this happens against the backdrop of Patience, Colorado, a fictional small town with scenic views and nearby wilderness areas. In real life, though, the team behind “Resident Alien” found their version of Patience in a different small town – and a different country. Before the quirky show returns for its fourth season, which will air on USA Network, it’s worth brushing up on all the stunning filming locations that help make “Resident Alien” unique.

If you’re looking to trek through the scenic Rocky Mountains that appear in “Resident Alien,” you’ll actually have to go a thousand or so miles further north. Like many forest-heavy TV shows (see: “The Killing,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Harper’s Island,” and almost every show on the CW, for starters), the series is largely filmed in and around Vancouver, Canada. Several noteworthy British Columbia locations stand in for its “Colorado” scenery, including Britannia Beach, the Sea-To-Sky Corridor, and Capilano River Regional Park, according to Atlas of Wonders.

The North Vancouver park mentioned above is home to the gorgeous but nerve-wracking bridge over a river that’s seen in the show’s second season finale, while Rainbow Mountain and surrounding areas stand in for the Rockies in key scenes in the show. “This is us filming up on the glacier last year,” Tudyk wrote in an Instagram photo caption in 2023. “I suggest a season 4 where Harry suddenly prefers beaches. Just for variation.” There is a fourth season in the works, but in the meantime, Tudyk got to film on the Pemberton Ice Cap, which location manager Ken Brooker told SyFy Wire required a helicopter trip to access.

Other reported locations around Vancouver that were used for the show include The Polygon Gallery, the Rogers Building, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, all of which doubled for spots around New York City on screen. Many of the series’ sets were also built on a studio lot in Vancouver.

The first three seasons of “Resident Alien” also utilized a few small towns outside of Vancouver for its production. The most-used placeholder is Ladysmith, a scenic but tiny island community that was once called Oyster Harbor. Ladysmith stands in as Patience, Colorado in the show, and while some of the town sets exist only on a soundstage in Vancouver, several storefronts and town locales that are shown throughout the show are actually in Ladysmith. The town reportedly has fewer than 9000 residents, but according to Nanaimo Now News, the “Resident Alien” shoot has become a big part of the local community.

“There are crew members who are so excited to go back to shoot but excited to go to their favorite bakery, all these wonderful places in town they love going to, buying merchandise from,” series creator Chris Sheridan told the outlet. And since production sometimes has to shut down streets in town, the showrunner was happy to leave a reference to the location in the first season as a gesture of thanks. “There’s a building in town that says ‘Ladysmith’ on it in large letters,” he said. “There was a point in post-production where I was asked if I wanted to erase the letters because it would give up this was Ladysmith, B.C. and not Patience, Colorado, and I said no.”

Other shooting locations outside the greater Vancouver and North Vancouver area include a studio backlot in Burnaby, B.C., and the Indigenous district municipality of Squamish, which stands in for Colorado’s Southern Ute Indian Reservation, per Atlas of Wonders.

Despite largely being based in the frosty north and set in Colorado, “Resident Alien” does manage to sneak in a hint of the Pacific Northwest for an establishing shot in season 3. The season’s third episode sees Harry take a trip to Yellowstone National Park, where he stays at a gorgeous-looking log cabin-style hotel alongside the Hawthorne family. The exterior shots of the hotel apparently come from The Lodge at Riverside, a hotel that’s located in Grants Pass, Oregon.

If you’ve ever driven up the West Coast via I-5, you’ll likely know that Grants Pass is an essential rest stop for weary travelers who have just spent a couple of hours on edge while driving through the endlessly winding mountain passes in the region. Grants Pass is a major hotel town for this reason, but it’s also a great spot for outdoor adventures thanks to its proximity to the popular Rogue River. We don’t get to see much of Grants Pass in “Resident Alien,” which is unfortunate since it has a giant caveman statue that seems to be this show’s style. Still, it’s impressive that the “Resident Alien” location team was able to make a chilly Oregon town look like the dusty landscape of Montana and Wyoming.

The first three seasons of “Resident Alien” are currently streaming on Netflix. Season 4 does not currently have a release date set, but it will air on USA Network after three seasons spent on the Syfy Channel.